Google Voice ‘offers new opportunities’

Google Voice – Google’s voice search function – could provide mobile phone users with new opportunities to connect with the area around them, it has been suggested.

Android and Apple smartphone users are able to use a method where the location of the user is taken into account through the use of the Near Me Now function.

Consumers may want to consider mobile recycling in order to purchase a handset which is compatible with the feature.

Andreas Pouros, chief operations officer for Greenlight, said: “Much of Google’s focus of late is in trying to extend what it does into the offline space, by integrating online data with our interactions with the offline world.”

He added that in the US, Google has provided local businesses with barcoded Google stickers that can be placed in the windows and stated that a user can scan the code with their handset to bring up details such as contact information, menus and reviews.

Gartner research predicts that advertising-sponsored mobile applications will generate almost 25 per cent of mobile application stores revenue in 2013